Monday, February 16, 2015

Training in the area of Trauma Informed Care - has been done by LAMb in many countries over the last couple of years. Pastor David and Jayne Schooler, along with Lynn and Ruby Johnston have been reaching out to countries where there is a desire to build capacity within their ministry teams, NGO's and other workers who work with vulnerable, exploited and orphaned children. Together we have trained over a 1,000 workers and are in the process of mentoring and developing hundreds of trainers.

Poland, Botswana, South Africa, Armenia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Haiti, Mexico are just the beginning - trainers trained and being mentored and developed to conduct training in their own language and in their own country. LAMb International and the Institute for Human Services continues to work tirelessly to bring quality evidence-based, best practice and competency based training and consultation to the masses! It is all about partnerships!

Partnerships to make this happen are essential to the movement of CAPACITY BUILDING. We have many and we appreciate and value each partnership. Our new partnership here - Blossoms Network - and the beginning of a great relationship! Located in the center of a slum area! Invested in micro-financing and building businesses - building community and serving the families in their community.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Orphanism has a face.Sometimes it's easy to sit at home and talk about orphans. You know how that can go, but face to face, hand to hand, hug to hug, each orphan has not simply a face, but a hope and a dream that some day, someone, will care enough to do something.Here, at the Abode of Peace, an orphanage here in India, 150 children live in hope. Cared for by a loving couple and a few staff. Living in one rented room and depending on God through the power of prayer to provide. To provide food, clothing and hope. What a blessing it would be to be able to actually purchase this entire building and make a "permanent" home for these children. It is beyond their means, it is beyond our means, but it is not beyond hope.Face to face, my heart strains at the extremes to minister, to help, to join with them in hope.I could post pictures here, but I will not. You have seen them, but was it personal?Face to face it is impossible to turn your back, to turn away, to ignore them.Face to face, it is real.Face to face church, the call is there, the children are real, the need is great.Together we can make a difference.Face to face, arm in arm, we can walk with these precious children. What a delight to see their faces light up with a smile.Yes, orphanism has a face.We need to be careful not to be overwhelmed. One face, one child, one family at a time and hope spreads. The dream begins to come true. Every child deserves a loving family.Orphanism has a face, it is the face of a child wanting the love of a family.

We cannot begin to tell the stories that we have heard - so sad and devastating that you just stop and ponder how you can help. THIS GROUP OF LEADERS IS COMMITTED - and they work in many different areas: churches, villages, orphanages, etc.

We had two join us on line via (Skype) from other countries: one woman from Singapore who works with prostitutes - helping to bring them out of bondage of the sex trade and another woman living in Australia. All wanting to make a difference in a country where abuse, neglect and exploitation come in with devastating numbers.

India is the second most populated country in the world and have the most children of any country in the world. There are over a half billion children in India. Look at these facts... and Andhra Pradesh is high among the data.

According
to one report, 40 percent of these children are in need of care and protection.
With its multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious population, the
problems of socially marginalized and economically backward groups, such as
children are immense.

It has
clearly emerged that across different kinds of abuse, it is young children, in
the 5-12 year group, who are most at risk of abuse and exploitation.According to one study the following
statistics stand:

Physical Abuse

1. Two
out of every three children were physically abused.

2. Out
of 69% children physically abused in 13 sample states, 54.68% were boys.

3.
Over 50% children in all the 13 sample states were being subjected to one or
the other form of physical abuse.

4. Out
of those children physically abused in family situations, 88.6% were physically
abused by parents.

5. The
State of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi have almost consistently
reported higher rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other states.

6.
Most children did not report the matter to anyone.

7.
50.2% children worked seven days a week.

Sexual Abuse

1.
53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse.

2.
Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi reported the highest percentage of
sexual abuse among both boys and girls.

One our of two children between the ages of 6 and 14 has no
access to primary education

Out of the 27 million children born in India every year, 2
million do not survive to celebrate their first birthday

About 60 million Indian children under the age of 6 live
below the poverty line

500,000 children are forced into commercial sex trade every
year

10 out of every 3 girls do not live to see her 15th
birthday

Every sixth girl child’s death is due to gender
discrimination

53% of girls in the age group of 5-9 years are illiterate

5.2 million HIV/AIDS infected children

46% of children under 5 years of age are malnourished

Please pray for the ministry while there. Training those who work

with the most vulnerable - we will be training Trauma Informed skills and knowledge. Thank you so much for your support. The need is great!

"He told us how his brother went out for a walk and heard a baby crying at the corner - looking further he saw dogs chewing on the baby - still alive - who had been dumped off at the side of the road. Abandoned - tossed away like garbage. The baby was a girl - under valued by some in the society. He hit the dogs away and picked up the baby and got her to a hospital - too late."

We must go forth - educate, encourage and help those who can make a difference - one child, one family at a time. Training is a catalyst for change.

Friday, February 6, 2015

When we registered ILDC in Kyrgyzstan, we knew we needed to have a legal presence in the country to do the work we were called to do. ILDC was to be just that. ILDC was registered just a few short years ago. We started by doing consultation and training, added Dayspring (a pilot to demonstrate diverting children from going into an orphanage), then Jeremiah 29:11 (to work with vulnerable youth who are aging out of the orphanages), Life Skills (being delivered in two different orphanages to grade 8 and 9 students - soon to leave the orphanage) and continued with training across the region.

After Natasha our Kyrgyz Country Director moved out of country, we hired our present leaders Kosta and Olga from Ukraine to join us in KG and serve as the Country Director and Residential Director and they have done a great job. Along with team members from Kyrgyzstan, much has been accomplished over the last several years. Recently Kosta developed an infograph to give a little insight of what the last two years have been like for them - from 2012 - 2014.

And there is more to come. You, our sponsors have been there to support this and we THANK YOU FOR THIS. Making sustainable change - one church, one family, one child at a time.

AND NEXT? We will join up with the team in March and away we go to further the work of ministry and Ephesians 4:12-17:

Mentoring Program

Jeremiah Steps Youth

Increased use of Jeremiah Drop-in Center

and more training - through the development of the soon to be - ILDC Kyrgyzstan Training Center.

The training for Life Skills is now beginning - oh yes, we have completed the time for the Training of Trainers. LAMb served the ORPHANetwork and delivered 3 1/3 days of training - equipping the leadership to begin their journey to serve youth.

This team represented 6 orphanges, one transition program and hundreds of churches through their Local Church Initiative. Let's consider the potential impact from these leaders and the areas in which they work and serve:

- schools with over 1000 youth

- church programs - countless numbers

- parent groups -hundreds of parents

- orphanage training - over 400 youth

- community outreach - countless numbers

God was at the center of all our work. He reigned and the team of trainers continued to thank Him for the gift of knowledge, skills and tools to work with vulnerable children, orphans and crisis families.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Years ago while in Ukraine - a large snow storm hit - we managed to get stranded at a church in Kiev. As we were waiting for and hoping for a taxi to get us to the place we were staying, we met Kristi Weber - wife of CBN Ukraine President, Steve Weber. Through the course of the long wait and long conversation, we were invited to attend a strategic meeting at CBN to contribute to the development of the Life Skill program for Ukraine. At this time, there were hopes and dreams, but not too many specific plans for the development of this program.

Tatiana Kristyenko was the person in charge of The Gift of Adoption at CBN and was coordinating the Life Skill meeting. We were asked to take the lead role in the writing and content part of the development of the program - to work with a guiding team in Ukraine and to produce a program that could be taught to orphans. The team in Ukraine, along with Don, Johanna, Lynn and Ruby worked for one year to produce the now widely used Life Skill training program.

Lynn and Ruby trained over 600 leaders in Ukraine, 65 in Kyrgyzstan, 45 in Russia. CBN and the Life Skill program continued to grow and the new leader Karen Springs along with her Ukraine team has carried the program to Moldova, Lithuania, Russia and all over Ukraine, teaching hundreds more. Last week, Johanna taught the program to trainers in Mazaltan, Mexico, And this week Ruby is teaching the program in Managua, Nicaragua.

During the development year Don spent hundreds of hours formatting, editing and working on the Life Skills before they were sent to Ukraine for review and further editing and cultureizing. Life Skills was a deep passion for Don. He strongly believed in the work and committed his year to this project, working with voice recognition into his computer. Don's disability did not hold him back. He lived with quadriplegia, he did not succumb to it. The last two weeks would be causing him to rejoice in his heart and spirit. Although he is not with us anymore - we rejoice for him. We honor him as being the "father" of our Life Skill program. If heaven allows for glimpse of this earth - I pray that God will give him the pleasure of seeing his efforts and the fruit that continues to grow.THANK YOU DON.

OUR REGISTERED COUNTRY ORGANIZATIONS

PASTOR GLEN

ABOUT LAMb

We are a registered charity of Canada, committed to activating and equipping leaders around the world! Protecting children, Strengthening families, Growing communities! Ephesians 4:12
Commissioned by Mapleview Community Church in 2004

Designated Giving Policy of LAMb International FOR CANADA AND THE USA

CANADIAN INVESTORS: Spending of funds is confined to LAMb International approved programs and projects. Each restricted contribution designated toward an approved program or project will be used as designated with the understanding that when the need for such a program or project has been met, or cannot be completed for any reason determined by LAMb International, the remaining restricted contributions designated for such program or project will be used where needed most. (Charity's Business Number - BN 81700 7024 RR0001)

USA INVESTORS: LAMb International USA is a United States 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt public charity (tax ID #80-0620953). At all times both LAMb International Canada and LAMb International USA retain ultimate authority to use contributions at their discretion for purposes consistend with their tax exempt purposes.